Smoke device



May 20, 1930. w. BECK 1,759,033

SMOKE DEVICE Filed Feb. 24. 1926 r Patented May 20, 1930 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

WALTER BECK, OF FRANKFORTON-THE-MAIN, GERMANY, ASSIGNOR 'IO DEUTSCHE GOLD & SILIBER SCHEIDEANSTALT, VORMALS BOESSLER, OF FRANKFORT-ON-THE- MAIN, GERMANY, A CORPORATION SMOKE DEVICE Application filed February 24, 1826 Serial No. 90,327, and in Germany February 26, 1925.

This invention relates to an improvement in smoke devices or apparatus for developing gases for the destruction of noxious animals such as live in underground passages, buildings orburrows, such animals being for instance, moles, rabbits, rats, wasps, termites and the like. The invention refers chiefly to such apparatus as will generate poisonous gases in a'closed room by the ignition of a cartridge containing combustible material, the poison gases being subsequently introduced into the burrows and caused to traverse the passages.

According to this invention a current of air is introduced into the closed space Where the poison gases collect after they have been produced by ignition. This current of air serves to dilute these gases and causes them bypressure or by suction to pass from the generating room into the passages of the noxious animals whereby the volume of the gas is considerably increased without its poisonous efficiency being seriously diminished.

In the accompanying drawings various forms of the devices show by way of illustration how I wish to carry my invention into effect.

Figure 1 shows a cylindrical device holding a cartridge and its container and a bellows attached to the inside of the device by a tube which terminates near the open end of the device. Figures 2 and 3 show a similar general construction but with an air pump in place of the bellows of Fig. 1 and a slightly different construction near the open end of the device.

According to Figure 1 the combustion chamber a has the shape of a barrel or a tube. The open front end b of the tube is preferably conical-shaped thereby being particularly suitable for introduction into the entrances of the burrows. The previously lighted cartridge is put into the frame work through the other end of the tube whereupon the apparatus is closed with the lid 6. The poison gases which are liberated b, the ignition of the combustible materials conpressure in the front part f of the barrel. A

piece of tubing 9 through which a current of air generated by a bellows h is blown, leads into this zone which contains the poisonous gases only after these-have first been produced. The air rushing out of the aperture Here again the air may be introduced or pressed through the tube 9 by means of an air pump k, a bicycle pump or any similar device by which air pressure can be generated, such a device may be joined either by means of a rigid connection pipe 9 as shown in Figure 2 or by means of flexible tubing 6 as indicated in Figure 3.

The new apparatus has the great advantage that, with the aid of the attached devices such as bellows or air pumps for generating a current of air, the gases are enabled to traverse even very long underground passages and to reach the innermost recesses of the burrows. It further allows the air to be added some distance away from the glowing cartridge, which is of special importance in such cases where. oxidizable gases such as sulphuretted hydrogen or carbon monoxide or mixtures of both are generated as poison gases. By arranging the attached tube g, by means of which the air is introduced into the neighbourhood of the aperture of the apparatus by which the gases leave the smoke device, the gases are prevented from repassing the glowing zone. This precludes the danger of explosions which might otherwise occur when the air added got mixed with for instance the sulphuretted hydrogen formed, and the mixture then came into contact with the burning cartridge. The same danger would'exist if the air would first be heated by passing over the red hot cartridge and subsequently when hot be mixed. with the oxidizable poison ases. The latter would be converted there y into gases of greatly diminishedtoxicity for instance into carbon dioxideand sulphur dioxide respectively.

Various forms of smoke devices have been known in which the air pum ing device constituted an essential part or the combustion of the cartridge inasmuch as it supplied the oxygen necessary for the reaction. In my new device however the combustion of the cartridge takes place without the help of the air the latter only driving out the poison gases after they have been generated.

The apparatus which forms the object of my invention may be modified in many Ways within the scope of the invention. For instance, in the place of the air pump or the bellows any other device producing air currents may be used. Further the closed space in.which the combustion of the cartridge takes place instead of being barrel-shaped may have any other convenient form. The introduction of the air may also be achieved by any suitable means, for instance by ring jets or the like, and its place of introduction may be varied.

Above all it is essential that the air should be introduced into the poison gases only after they have been fully developed and that the gases should be prevented from fiowing back into the ignition zone.

In some cases it is advantageous to separate the air pumping device from the apparatus in which the poison gases are generated and to connect both devices by means of fiexible tubing as shown in Figures 1 and 3. By this arrangement the operator of the whole equipment is enabled to hold the aperture 6 after it has been introduced into the entrance of a burrow, quite steadily and without being affected by the movements of the device producing the air current. An enlarging of the entrance of the passages and a consequent loss of gas is thereby avoided.

It is possible to use the smoke apparatus without employing the device producing the air current. In this case the gas generating apparatus is preferably detached from the air current producing device and the tube 9 closed by suitable means.

What I claim is:

1. A process for combating noxious animals in underground passages which consists in generating a gas mixture containing, hydrogen sulfide by the ignition of combustible cart-ridges Without an external supply of air, and adding air to the fully developed gases at a point remote from the point of combustion so that the oxygen of the air will not react with the burning materials or with the evolved gases.

2. A process for combating noxious animals in underground passages which consists in generating a gas mixture containing hydrogen sulfide by the ignition of combustible cartridges Without an external supply of air, and entraining the fully developed gases in an air current at a point remote from the point of combustion so that the oxygen of the air will not react withthe burning materials or with the evolved gases.

3. A process for combating noxious animals in underground passages which consists in generating a gas mixture containing hydrogen sulfide by the ignition of combustible cartridges without an external supply of air, and adding air to the fully developed gases so that the added air will produce a moving mixture of poisonous gases at a point remote from the burning materials.

4. A process for combating noxious animals in underground passages which consists in generating a gas mixture containing hydrogen sulfide by the ignition of combustible cartridges without an external supply of air. and forcing out the poison gases by adding air to the same after they have been fully developed, said air being added in such a manner as not to come in contact with the burn iug material.

Signed at Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany, this 1th day of February, A. D. 1926.

. WALTER BECK. 

